HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL CONCLUDES SECOND SESSION AFTER ADOPTING EIGHTEEN TEXTS

The Human Rights Council today concluded its second session in which it adopted 18 texts, including on human rights and access to water, extreme poverty, the occupied Syrian Golan, the right to truth, incompatibility between democracy and racism, Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, persons deprived of liberty in the context of counter-terrorism measures, cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner in Afghanistan and Nepal, effective implementation of international instruments on human rights, and Darfur.

In a text on human rights in the occupied Syrian Golan, the Council determined that all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken or to be taken by Israel, the occupying power, that purported to alter the character and legal status of the occupied Syrian Golan were null and void, constituted a flagrant violation of international law and of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and had no legal effect. And in a text on Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and in the Occupied Golan, the Council urged Israel, the occupying power, to reverse the settlement policy in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan and to prevent any new installation of settlers in the occupied territories.

On Darfur, the Council called on all parties that had not yet done so to sign the Peace Agreement, in compliance with the relevant United Nations resolutions; and called on all parties to put an immediate end to the ongoing violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, with a special focus on vulnerable groups, including women and children, while not hindering the return of all internally displaced persons to their homes.

With regards to cooperation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Afghanistan, the Council welcomed the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan and on the achievements of technical assistance in the field of human rights, and requested the High Commissioner to continue, in cooperation with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, to monitor the human rights situation in Afghanistan, paying special attention to the rights of women.

And on cooperation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal, the Council welcomed the significant improvements of the human rights situation in Nepal with the success of the democratic movement and the restoration of the democratic institutions; and underlined the need to address the considerable challenges ahead.

With regards to the Intergovernmental Working Group on the Review of Mandates, the Council requested the Working Group to review the revised draft manual of the United Nations human rights Special Procedures of June 2006 and to make recommendations on possible additions or amendments thereto.

Presenting the report of the session, Musa Burayzat, Rapporteur of the session, said it contained the outcome and format of the deliberations. The format of the report was based on the agenda and the draft framework for the work. It was a procedural account of the work of the session, containing four chapters on resolutions, decisions, the agenda and organization of work, and the efforts of activities regarding implementation of General Assembly resolution 60/251. The substance of discussion and debates would be faithfully recorded in official summary records. The Council adopted the report of the session.

In brief closing remarks, Luis Alfonso de Alba, President of the Council, urged delegations to continue to work closely in order to progress further. The adopted texts include a Presidential Statement in which the Council postpones 20 draft texts for consideration at later session. The President then closed the second session, and immediately opened the third session.

The deferred draft texts are on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory: follow-up to the Human Rights Council resolution S-1/1; global efforts for the total elimination of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance and the comprehensive implementation of and follow-up to the Durban Plan of Action; the rights of indigenous peoples; human rights and unilateral coercive measures; the right to development; composition of the staff of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; enhancement of international cooperation in the field of human rights; the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination; globalisation and its impact on the full enjoyment of all human rights; strengthening of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; incitement to racial and religious hatred and the prom potion of tolerance; rectification of the status of the Committee on Economic, social and cultural rights; World programme for human rights education; conclusion of the draft international Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and its optional protocol; the human rights of migrants, rights of the child; transitional justice; Sri Lanka; impunity; and the freedom of opinion and expression to later sessions of the Council.

During its second session, which was held from 18 September until 6 October, and then in a resumed segment from 27 to 29 November, the Council addressed a wide range of issues, hearing from the thematic Special Procedures on the following topics: racism and racial discrimination, people of African descent, migrants, internally displaced persons, minorities, indigenous peoples, extrajudicial and summary executions, enforced disappearances, children in armed conflict, gender issues and the status of women, violence against women, trafficking in persons, torture, arbitrary detention, the independence of judges, freedom of religion and belief, freedom of expression, human rights defenders, the right to health, toxic and dangerous products and waste, housing, food, poverty, sale of children, economic and structural reform, mercenaries, education, transnational corporations, and human rights and counter-terrorism measures.

The Council also considered the reports of country-specific Special Rapporteurs and Experts, including on Belarus, Somalia, Cuba, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Cambodia, Haiti, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Sudan and Liberia.

The Council heard a presentation of the joint report by the Special Rapporteurs on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, and on adequate housing, and of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the human rights of internally-displaced persons, on their mission to Lebanon and Israel. This was accompanied by a report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food on his mission to Lebanon.

After the Experts presented their reports, the Council held an interactive dialogue with each of them, with the participation of Member States, observer States and non-governmental organizations.

A series of reports were presented to the Council by the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Colombia, Guatemala, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and Uganda. The report of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights was also considered by Member States in the context of a debate with the Chairman of the Sub-Commission.

The follow-up of decisions and resolutions taken at the first session and during the first and second special sessions were discussed during the session, and a follow-up report by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 was also presented.

The Council also heard the progress report of the intersessional open-ended intergovernmental Working Group which it established to develop the modalities of the Universal Periodic Review mechanism; and the progress report of the Working Group on the implementation of operative paragraph 6 of General Assembly resolution A/60/251 to review, and where necessary improve and rationalize, all mandates of its Special Procedures, expert advice, and a complaint procedure inherited from the former Commission on Human Rights, and this within one year. In this regard, the Council adopted a generic text on mechanisms and mandates.

Meetings of the 1503 procedure, during which the Council considers the situation of human rights violations in certain countries behind closed doors, were also held. The Council discussed the situation of human rights in Iran, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and decided to end its consideration of the situation in Kyrgyzstan under this procedure.

Resolutions and Decisions

In resolutions and decisions, the Council adopted texts on:

- the Intergovernmental Working Group on the Review of Mandates, in which it requested the Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on the Review of Mandates to review the revised draft manual of the United Nations human rights Special Procedures of June 2006 and to make recommendations on possible additions or amendments thereto;

- human rights and access to water, in which the Council requested the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to conduct a detailed study on the scope and content of the relevant human rights obligations related to equitable access to safe drinking water and sanitation under international human rights instruments;

- human rights and extreme poverty, in which the Council, taking note of the draft guiding principles on extreme poverty and human rights: the rights of the poor, requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to circulate the draft guiding principles;

- human rights in the occupied Syrian Golan, in which the Council determined that all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken or to be taken by Israel, the occupying power, that purported to alter the character and legal status of the occupied Syrian Golan were null and void, constituted a flagrant violation of international law and of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and had no legal effect;

- the right to the truth, in which the Council decided to request the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a follow-up report on the study on the right to the truth;

- incompatibility between democracy and racism, in which the Council requested the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, when submitting his report to the Council at any session after its fourth session, to include the issue of political participation and representation of groups that are vulnerable to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in the decision-making process in national Governments, parties, parliaments and civil society in general;

- access to medication in the context of pandemics such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, in which the Council requested the Secretary-General, when submitting his report, to include a study on the exploration of new and innovative financing mechanisms, bearing in mind the existing ones, which can help to improve the access to medication that fight those pandemics, from the perspective of human rights;

- the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, in which the Council requested the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, when presenting his report to include the possibility of identifying and exploring the key features of an effective, integrated and accessible health system;

- effects of economic reform policies and foreign debt on the full enjoyment of all human rights, in which the Council decided to request the High Commissioner for Human Rights to convene an Expert Consultation to discuss the proposed draft general guidelines;

- integrity of the judicial system, in which the Council decided to ask the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers to take full account of the relevant resolutions on the issue of administration of justice through military tribunals of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the discharge of his mandate and in his report to the fourth session of the Council;

- Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and in the Occupied Golan, in which the Council urged Israel, the occupying power, to reverse the settlement policy in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan and to prevent any new installation of settlers in the occupied territories;

- human rights and arbitrary deprivation of nationality, in which the Council called upon its relevant mechanisms as well as appropriate United Nations treaty bodies to continue to collect information on the question of human rights and arbitrary deprivation of nationality from all relevant sources and to take account of such information, together with any recommendations thereon, in their reports and activities conducted within their respective mandates;

- persons deprived of liberty in the context of counter-terrorism measures, in which the Council recalled that States must ensure that any measures taken to combat terrorism comply with their obligations under international law, in particular human rights law, refugee law and humanitarian law;

- cooperation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Afghanistan, in which the Council welcomed the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan and on the achievements of technical assistance in the field of human rights, and requested the High Commissioner to continue, in cooperation with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, to monitor the human rights situation in Afghanistan, paying special attention to the rights of women;

- cooperation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal, in which the Council welcomed the significant improvements of the human rights situation in Nepal with the success of the democratic movement and the restoration of the democratic institutions; and underlined the need to address the considerable challenges ahead;

- effective implementation of international instruments on human rights, in which the Council encouraged the High Commissioner for Human Rights to undertake a study on various options for reforming the treaty body system, and to seek the views of States and other stakeholders in this regard and to report thereon to the Human Rights Council;

- Darfur in which the Council called on all parties that had not yet done so to sign the Peace Agreement, in compliance with the relevant United Nations resolutions; and called on all parties to put an immediate end to the ongoing violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, with a special focus on vulnerable groups, including women and children, while not hindering the return of all internally displaced persons to their homes;

- and a Presidential Statement on postponement of consideration of draft proposals, in which the Council took note of the deferral of twenty draft proposals.